


part of the narrative

by EKmisao



Series: stories from the end [2]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Related, F/M, Game Spoilers, Spoilers, ending spoilers, special episode spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 17:37:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8336791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EKmisao/pseuds/EKmisao
Summary: (Ending/extended ending spoilers) As the world around him changes, a request to stay. (one-shot vignette)





	

**Author's Note:**

> A few things: 
> 
> \- This is SPOILERS for the ending and extended ending.  
> \- Yes, I am part of the wider Hamilton fandom (but no I will not fic for historical characters). I can't rap any of it to save my life, though.  
> \- I actually liked this character, and I don't want to forget her. I 'played' in the most direct sequence (Yoosung then Seven; generally not recommended but worth it for me and no regrets), and am just now going through a 'cleansing' run with Jaehee. But I don't want to forget.

[THE SPOILER WARNING IS REPEATED.]  
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..............................

"But really, dearie, you MUST see his arms sometime," she said, tugging at my own arms. She sighed as she looked toward the hospital bed, where the young man with the said arms kept his eyes closed. "Such a nice physique he has. And such nice biceps, really beautiful contoured things. But he keeps hiding them inside long sleeves and that silly jacket." 

My cheeks warmed significantly without my consent, listening to all of this. I had indeed seen him in a button-down shirt that partly revealed good arms and a good torso....and nice pectorals...and a nice back...and really why am I letting her do this to me? But she was right. We showered separately, even through the entire whirlwind. So I saw his body through layers of clothing. 

She. Her. It's not that I objected to her identity, not at all. I am okay with using the pronouns she preferred. But...she is the first I personally know. I was just, in honesty, not used to people like her. But he's perfectly used to it, smoothly talking to her, and only very occasionally teasing her with other pronouns. 

Vanderwood. Mary Vanderwood, the third. I am certain that's an alias. She was as Korean as either of us, just taller than both of us, and with broader shoulders. But as with Luciel, Seven, Saeyoung, it is her name to give, her identity to provide. 

"I once got into that basement apartment just after he got out of a shower," she continued, clearly enjoying my red cheeks. "He must've forgotten to take the shirt into the bathroom. Aiya!" She fanned herself. "Biceps, pectorals, abdominals...such a good anatomy lesson!" 

"Vanderwood..." 

We both turned. He was still pale, still fatigued. His eyes were still closed. 

"I love you--" 

Vanderwood raised an eyebrow, but she straightened. "You...you do?" 

He opened his eyes with a small weak grin. "--but don't give her ideas." 

"What do you mean, don't give her ideas?" Vanderwood asked, with a voice lower than she intended. 

"I'm more than my body...I'll...have you know...agent." He halted, still fogged from the pain medications. 

"You're just dreaming me up, I think!" Vanderwood replied, seeing what I also saw: the lack of that intense, driven focus in his eyes. "Go back to sleep." 

"Don't...listen to...that woman," he told me. "She's...more trouble than she's worth." 

Vanderwood chuckled, as his eyes fluttered closed again. 

She sighed, deeply, as she looked at him in silence, for many moments. 

She gestured to me, as we felt him falling back to deeper sleep, thanks to the medicines. She took up my hand. She flicked her head toward the door. 

I nodded and followed. 

..............................

"Thank you," was the first thing I said, as we sat on the floor, just outside his hospital room door. 

"Whatever for?" she asked. "I almost killed you, him, and that confounded unexpected doppleganger!" 

"But, you didn't. Thank you." 

Vanderwood sighed. She looked me straight in the eyes. "I'd kill myself first before I kill Luciel. If it came to that. I'd side with him, any time, any day." 

I nodded. 

"I'm his handler. I've been his handler for years now. Professional arrangement or no, I can't kill him. I couldn't do that." 

I put a hand over one of her own large ones. 

"I was the strangest agent in that crazy agency. Then he arrived, so he became the strangest agent, and I became number two strangest agent. We were teamed up, he was the asset and I was the handler. That's all." 

I patted the hand. "Thank you, again." 

She looked away. "Stop it, dearie. You've done in five days what I was never able to do in five years. You...you...you deserve to be with him." A tear escaped an eye before she could stop it from falling. 

"But you kept him alive for five years. That is something I did not do." 

She turned again. I nodded again. I deserved no credit for keeping a conflicted young man happy enough and sane enough over several years, when nothing but the immediate life-threatening work in front of them made sense. 

"I'd do it again. In a heartbeat," she said. "And not just because of those arms." 

I chuckled, as I kept holding her hand. She chuckled as well. 

"Dearie?" 

"Yes?" 

"Can I be Angelica?" 

I tilted my head. I did not understand. 

She explained in several paragraphs, about how Angelica Schuyler was Alexander Hamilton's sister-in-law, but not his wife, even if she seemed to have feelings for him. It was part of the material for a popular new American musical. 

"I guess, I love him. I love every dark, deep, funny, crazy, stupid, part of him. And I guess a part of him knows that. The part of him that understands people like me, the part of me that understands me the way he understands himself, the entirety of him that accepted the entirety of me. But I can never be to him, what you have have been to him. I know that." 

And she repeated: "Can I be Angelica? Can I remain part of this narrative?" 

I wrapped my arms around her neck, and gave her the warmest embrace I could make. 

She kept talking through the tears. "I kinda sense he'll want to be with that odd brother of his from now on. He'll drop everything, the way he dropped everything to track after this brother. He'll drop me soon enough. But please let me visit. Have all the dates you want alone together. But please let me have coffee and cake with the two of you sometimes. Let me chill in front of a TV with the both of you. Let me find white-hat computer jobs for him, when he finally gets bored out of his mind and finally needs to work, despite all the money he has scrimped and put into those cars of his. Heck, I don't care if you just open the door to me and let me eat those honey butter chips." 

I kept my arms around her, letting the tears fall onto my sweater. "Of course. Of course." 

"He'll push me away, the way he pushes everyone away. But you'll let me stay, right? You'll convince him to let me stay? I won't steal him from you. I'll be a really good girl. But please. Let me stay." 

"Of course." I leaned my head on her shoulder. "Of course." 

She did not have to say her thanks aloud. I felt it in the tight hug, in her tears. 

Then she released me. 

"Come on." She grinned. "Let's go back in. And chat about his biceps." 

I laughed as I gave her one last hug.

**Author's Note:**

> \- It is part of my frustrations that the App Store shows Seven has VERY NICE arms, but you don't see any of it until nearly the end. (I am semi-aware that it is a whole picture, but I don't want to run into a not-good-end to get it.)


End file.
